When love has to find its way, it goes through life’s labyrinthine alleys to find the one meant for you — the sentence explains the riveting story of Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana and wife Tahira Kashyap, who’ve been together for 12 years, only two out of which have they been married.

With spunk in their voice and glimmer in her eyes, Tahira says, “Both of us met in high school. Ayushmann was in DAV-10 and I was in Government Senior Secondary, Sector 16. Both of us had opted for medical and were taking physics and chemistry tuitions at the same place in Sector 9. For an entire year, my friends and I didn’t talk to Ayushmann and his group.”

On a coy note she adds, “I was somewhat of a ‘sought after’ girl in class, and I knew for a fact that some of Ayushmann’s friends were interested in me. Ayushmann tells me now that one of his friends asked Ayushmann to give me chocolates and flowers on his behalf. Thankfully, sense prevailed and he refused to do it, else, I would have hated Ayushmann for life!”

At this point, Ayushmann interjects, “Interestingly, my father and Tahira’s dad were thick friends. One day, my father invited them over for dinner and Tahira came with her best friend, who was also a part of our science class. So, as they both sat in our living room and ogled at my pictures, I looked at her on exiting from my bedroom and was stuck in my ‘OMG moment’ — she was the girl from my class who kept ignoring me. The scene was straight out of a Bollywood film.”

But the charmer that Ayushmann is, he supposedly made all the efforts to charm the girl of his dreams.

“That was the moment that I realised I liked Ayushmann. As a matter of fact, my friend too had a crush on him, making the situation all the more filmy. The suspense, however, went on for over a year. Ayushmann and I became friends, started meeting up for coffees and outings, and eventually started ‘seeing’ each other,” shares Tahira.

Some of the couple’s favourite meeting places in Chandigarh were a pizzeria in Sector 9, Kashyap Canteen, Stu-C and Stop ’n Stare, Sector 10.

Since both of them were also a part of their theatre group, Manchtantra, they also did a couple of plays together. After completing their masters in mass communication from PU, Ayushmann went to Mumbai and Tahira launched her own PR agency, before pursuing a job at a radio station in the city.

The couple got engaged in 2009 and married soon after. Tahira gets nostalgic as she adds, “Ayushmann proposed like a gentleman, with a ring, music in the background, red roses, wine and a romantic candle-light dinner. We believe that in our case, our parents played the matchmakers.”

The couple was blessed with a baby boy — Viraj Veer Khurrana — in January 2012 and are currently residing in Mumbai.